Venting

I need to vent. There are so many things bothering me in the realm of biking right now and I don't know where to start.

1. Bike Repairs

I am tired of paying so much money for bike repairs and parts. I asked Rock and Road to save my old parts after the most recent trip to the shop and when I got my old bottom bracket back I realized how simple it must be to install. I mean it's just a metal cylinder with threads on one side. I bet with the right tools it is close to trivial to install.

I need to do more bike work myself to save money.


2. Rock and Road

My relationship with Rock and Road (a bike shop) hasn't been all bad. There have been plenty of times where they've bailed me out or done something cool for me. But as of right now I'm pissed.

I took my bike in with a broken derailleur hanger and got a call saying the rear derailleur was shot. I wasn't sure if I could trust them, but what choice do I have? Just the idea that I would consider that they would lie to me and try to sell me something I don't need shows how fragile the relationship is.

Sure enough when I went to ride this past Saturday I noticed the rear derailleur was different than what I had asked for. Now I'll admit I didn't give them a very detailed model. They simply said they would replace it with the exact same derailleur and I said that would be fine.

Well the derailleur I got was not the same. It was a cheaper model and that makes me mad.

The other thing I learned was not to trust their schedule for repairs. If they say it'll be ready on a Thursday, that means they will _look at it_ on Thursday. If they need parts or have questions, then it will take even longer.

Finally despite all my attempts to communicate I realize it ultimately falls on deaf ears. I took my singlespeed wheel to them and asked if they could repair a broken spoke before looking at my full suspension bike. I mean if the big repairs were going to take a week, then fine. But can't you just replace a spoke while I wait?

I knew that asking was futile. They didn't even look at the wheel until a week after I had brought it in.

So even though The Path is way out of my way I am going to try going there from now on. I'm just tired of mediocre service and terrible prices at Rock and Road.


3. Broken Garmin

That's right. This morning at work I accidentally threw my GPS to the ground in the elevator. I was taking it out of my jacket pocket and in one motion it slipped out of my hand and flew to the ground.

When I picked it up it was rattling and the mode button wouldn't work.

Thank God Garmin is a great company and is taking the unit back and fixing it for free. Even though I told them it was my fault, they agreed to handle it.


4. Rain

I got sick for a few weeks and missed a handful of rides with my buddies. Saturday I was way off my game. I just suffered through three hours on the bike and left feeling a little discouraged.

Now that I'm feeling better I have another enemy to contend with. Rain. Ugh.

I just want to ride! Hahaha.



Anyways I'm hoping all this time _not_ riding won't kill me for Vision Quest. I have no goals this year other than to beat my time from last year. Shouldn't be hard since I laid an egg last year.

January and February better be amazing months for riding because I'm feeling very behind right now.